Weird Al's best celebrity skewers

He mocks because he cares

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July 24, 2014
| Updated: July 25, 2014 9:47pm

"Weird Al" Yankovic's new record is a bonafide hit, skewering musicians like Robin Thicke, Pharrell Williams and Iggy Azalea. But what other celebs have fallen prey to Al's mocking melodies over the years?

Click through for a list of "Weird Al's" best snarky song parodies. Or don't. The choice is yours.

Photo By AP/Publicity photo

"My Bologna" (1983)

"Weird Al's" first major label debut riffed off the iconic pop song "My Sharona," by the Knack.

Hot off the heals of Yankovic's first self-titled album, "'Weird Al' Yankovic in 3-D" included a parody of Michael Jackson's hit single, "Beat It." Yankovic would set his sights on the King of Pop again in 1988 with "Fat," a rendition of Jackon's "Bad."

"Dare to Be Stupid" also featured a parody of Huey Lewis and The News' "I Want A New Drug." Unfortunately, the song was less successful, as most experts agree the band had become a parody of themselves by 1982.

The 11th song from "Weird Al" Yankovic's twelfth studio album, "Straight Outta Lynwood," sets its sights on R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet," an R&B rap opera that tells the story of a one-night stand and its many ramifications in 33 epic chatpers. "Drive-Thru" is about deciding what to eat for dinner.

Lyrics:

"I hopped up and I said, "I don't know, do you want to get something delivered?"

Before Miley Cyrus began the Most Provocative Teenybopper EVER, she was a nice girl who wrote songs about wearing cardigans and waiting in line for the TSA checkpoint. For this she was mercilessly mocked.

Sample lyrics:

"I've done a couple of crazy things that have almost gotten me dismissed

Alfred "Weird Al" Yankovic is no stranger to fame. His career in musical comedy stretches back to the mid-1970s, when a college-aged Yankovic created his first parody songs with a home tape recorder and his accordion.

But from those humble first recordings, Yankovic has spawned an empire of comedic mock-rock, spanning 14 studio albums, his own movie, numerous TV and web series guest appearances, and a TV special on MTV. His latest album, "Mandatory Fun," reached the No. 1 spot on Billboard's album chart in its first week, the first No. 1 album in "Weird Al's" three-decade career. It's also the first comedy album to reach the top spot since the enigmatically named 1963 recording, "My son, the nut."

Not even Steve Martin or Cheech and Chong nailed a No. 1 comedy album. In fact, Yankovic's "Mandatory Fun" is the best selling comedy record since "The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience" sold 118,000 copies in 1994, SoundScan reports.

Now, Yankovic seems back with a vengance. His new album moved 104,000 copies in its first week, according to Soundscan, helped along by an aggressive viral and social media marketing push, and a buzz-building hashtag, #8videos8days. The New York Times reports that his new music videos have been watched a total of 46 million times alone.